DiverCity
by AquaEclipse
Summary: A series of one-shots on the history, geography, social issues and cultural quirks (and more) of Asia's World City, starring the Bauhinia 22, many confused and shocked Nations. Rated for language, politically-sensitive topics, mild adult themes and mentions of death. Subsection AU. Main story of DCAU. DISCONTINUED. I AM SO SORRY.
1. Introductory AN

**A/N: What...I was planning to post this one when _TDINE - Become One_ hit 200 views, but how did _This One Meeting_ reach 206 views overnight? It's now my most popular story, _surpassing_ the first TDINE! Right when I say that _This One Meeting_ reached over 200 views, I immediately went to post this one, but my account was under lockdown...because one of my other stories, _The Final Stand_ seems to have violated the rules. Oops! (I'll rewrite that one someday.)  
**

 **And for _This One Meeting_ 's view numbers: 208...217...219...224...227...228…and the number won't be goin' down anytime soon, if ever.**

 **And by the time this is released, _TDINE - Become One_ has already reached 200 views (201, actually). So...**

 **Anyways, I hereby introduce you to** _ **DiverCity**_ **, a collection of one-shots based on the culture, social issues, geography, politics and cultural quirks of Asia's World City – Hong Kong.**

 **This story is inspired by** _ **Strange Things About America**_ **by** _ **nicetwin123**_ **. I have been given permission to do this based on their story. So thank you to you, _nicetwin123_ , for allowing this, and I recommend you, reader, to read that fic, if you haven't already.  
**

 **Also take note that the stories in** _ **DiverCity**_ **do not take place in any particular order, not counting the ones with confirmed dates or times.**

 **The following stories are based on extensive research (using books, textbooks, Wikipedia, Discover Hong Kong, news articles and videos, YouTube, memes, other websites and personal experience as a local of HK. I try to make them as truthful and realistic as possible to depict our culture and many, many issues left to solve.**

 **However, before we begin, I have one more thing to say, which I will not likely repeat in future chapters: I do not own** _ **Hetalia**_ **or any cultural references mentioned and/or experienced in this story. I only own my OCs, which range from most of the Subsections to humans, to an extent. Thank you for your understanding.**

 **And just in case…**

 **WARNING: The following story will touch upon sensitive subjects, such as death, natural disasters, phobias, political issues, social issues, current events, cuisine that may be disgusting to you, a strangely unique mix of cultures, mentions of war, hinted adult themes and romance, as well as TV Tropes and maybe others. I will further address a warning to the chapters that involve these topics. If you do not wish to read about any of these, I advise you to turn back and click away right now to avoid having to know of such things. If you're interested (or brave/curious enough) to read on, go ahead. Just don't come crying to me in the PMs or the reviews section about how you most certainly did not need to know about such things.**

 **And note that this is the main story for the _DiverCity (Alternate) Universe_ , or _DCAU_ for short. Other relevant stories will be labeled, so I advise you to check those out.**

 **The following ships will appear/be mentioned in the entire DCAU (but will not be limited to these):**

 **GerIta (Germany/North Italy)**

 **Spamano (Spain/South Italy)**

 **RusAme (Russia/America)**

 **FrUk (France/England)**

 **PruCan (Prussia/Cananda)**

 **GiriPan (Greece/Japan)**

 **SuFin (Sweden/Finland)**

 **DenNor (Denmark/Norway)**

 **Causaka (Causeway Bay/Osaka)**

 **MaVada (Macau/Nevada)**

 **If you do not support those ships, then ignore any and all mentions of them in the _DCAU_ , because romance is only a side matter and has little to do with the main plot.**

 **Please also note that the girl 'Crystal' mentioned in the official summary will not appear for a handful of chapters.**

 **Without further ado, click on the 'next chapter' button and enjoy** _ **DiverCity**_ **! (But leave me a review and fave and follow this story first...please?)  
**

 **-MN**

 **P.S. Since this website doesn't allow A/N-only chapters (as I might have mentioned above, I learnt the rules the hard way), here's a sneak peek for the first official chapter (of three sentences as this site doesn't allow one or two liners):**

 _That was at a World Meeting (because of course it was – all the drama happens during these Meetings and vice versa, it's practically a tradition now), about five minutes before a break._

 _What resulted from that brief 'conversation' that cannot even be called a proper conversation was a staring contest between the two East Asians._

 _They stared right through the break and into the final session of the Meeting that day, blatantly ignoring the chaos in the rest of the Meeting..._


	2. Chapter 1: Long-Lived

**Chapter 1: Long-Lived**

 _Warning: This story mentions intense romance (but it isn't relevant to the story), mild international-political issues and accented English. You have been warned._

* * *

It all started with a simple remark.

A simple remark on life expectancy.

The longest life expectancy, to be exact.

Made by Japan, but not to brag.

Just an offhanded remark.

Hong Kong, sitting two seats down from him, simply raised a thicker-than-most 'brow and asked, "REE-lee? You SHOO-uh? **(1)** "

That was at a World Meeting (because of course it was – all the drama happens during these Meetings and vice versa, it's practically a tradition now), about five minutes before a break.

What resulted from that brief 'conversation' that cannot even be called a proper conversation was a staring contest between the two East Asians.

They stared right through the break and into the final session of the Meeting that day, blatantly ignoring the chaos in the rest of the Meeting: South Italy acting extremely _tsundere_ to Spain (as usual), the _Entente Cordiale_ couple fighting for some stupid reason (as usual), a kind of…large…and powerful (each in their own way)…couple making out under the table (of all places…let's hope that didn't escalate into something further), Macau sneaking off out of the chaotic room (that's new!), India and Pakistan yelling at each other (of course as usual, they're rivals!) **(2)** , Iran and Iraq fighting over something (no, it's not name similarities) **(2)** , Turkey trying to shove Syria off of him (who was clinging to him) **(3)** …yeah.

By 6pm (the time when the "Meeting adjourned" announcement was made), the two _finally_ broke eye contact, and Hong Kong added – in Japanese **(4)** , for good measure, " _Look it up, and don't trust Wikipedia._ "

And guess what Japan found on the Internet without clicking into Wikipedia (aka one pretty unreliable information source)?

Oh, and Macau didn't even return to the Meeting room, and luckily, the snogging session didn't escalate into anything further. However, let's just hope that the hotel has thick walls.

* * *

 **#1-"Really? You sure?" with a heavy HK/Cantonese accent. Don't worry, this accent doesn't show up all the time when it comes to Hong Kong as a Personification. His Districts, on the other hand...well, it depends on who you're talking to. As for the people...God, the people. Most of us have _this_ terrifically horrific accent, and even _I_ slip into a downplayed _versh_ of this sometimes.  
**

 **#2-This is based on real-world unofficial rivalries between these Nations.**

 **#3-All 'em Syrian refugees, I think from the civil war (or whatever war). I accidentally came across it while looking up the rivalries and added it because why not.**

 **#4-An unfortunate side effect from what happened during WWII. Besides, the Japanese DSE (public exam) can be taken by those students who wish to. There are other languages, but as far as my personal knowledge (from DSE result announcement-reports of my school) goes, this one's probably the most common.**

* * *

 _A/N: According to multiple sources from the Internet, HK residents have the longest life expectancy in the world. If your source doesn't say that (*cough* Wikipedia *cough*), we're almost certainly in the top 10. Take that, Japan._

 **And this marks the end of the first official chapter of DiverCity. Please leave reviews and tell me what you want to know about my Bauhinia City. Thanks for reading, and let's see how many reviews I get for this. Bye-bye!**

 **-M.N.**

 **P.S. If anyone wants to write from the perspectives of the other Nations at the World Meeting, go ahead and tell me by review and/or PM, and I'll try my best to check it out. To do so, tell me the title, the username of the writer/writers (if it's not written by you) and its Story ID.**

Sources of the Chapter: Google, YouTube

 **Question of the Chapter: What do** _ **you**_ **ship for** _ **Hetalia**_ **? List them all!**


	3. Chapter 2: VR - Spark of the Rebellion

**A/N: Holy Lord.** _ **This One Meeting**_ **has reached over 300 views. That's over 100 views in 2-3 days. Holy shipwrecks. (I mean the Minecraft shipwrecks –** _ **Hetalia**_ **n ships are too awesome to be wrecked.)**

 **Besides this,** _ **Poems for the Peril**_ **and** _ **The No-Maj Path**_ **have both surpassed 100 views.**

 **So to celebrate that, here's a plot bunny generated when I was rereading** _ **Umbrellas in Bloom: Hong Kong's occupy movement uncovered**_ **by Jason Y. Ng. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer:** _ **Hetalia**_ **does not belong to this teenager who hasn't even reached 14.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Velvet Revolution – Spark of the Rebellion**

 _Warning: All information is not first-hand as I was 9-10 when the Movement happened and barely remember what was said on the news on TV. This chapter involves mild injury and_ very _politically-sensitive subjects (I will try to gloss over the very complicated political part and focus on the social part instead). Remember that I do not wish to offend anyone. I will try my best not to express radical opinions of any sort and stay neutral in terms of politics. If you feel offended, please do not leave flames. Thank you for your consideration._

* * *

Of course, since all the drama happens on the days of World Meetings (or is it the other day round?), a Meeting _had_ to fall on 28th September, 2014. During an unidentified Nation's speech on who-knows-what (because hardly anyone pays attention anyway) – probably a non-canon Nation –the clock struck 6pm for UTC+8 (in simpler terms, in HK Time), and a certain SAR said, _out loud_ :

"Oh s**t."

Then he outright pocketed his smartphone and hurried out of the Meeting room…even though the majority of everyone else was asking _WTH is going on_. Hong Kong ignored them. He had a plane to catch home.

Several hours later, a text popped up on several phones: _CCP let my ppl choose btwn given candidate A, B, C 4 boss. Some hate it. Protest. Tear gas._

Translation: _the Chinese Communist Party only lets [his] people choose between certain given candidates to be the next Chief Executive ([his] Boss). Some of [his] people protest against this because they were promised universal sufferage (everyone that can vote can vote for their choice candidate for the next Chief Executive) and the CCP broke that promise with the_ 8/31 Framework _. So there's a mass protest going on and tear gas was fired._ Note that tear gas had not been used to quell crowds since 2005.

News was also churning out as time passed. Blame human social media.

* * *

 _19 Hours Later_

Someone who appeared to be a teenage girl wearing a light pink _bossini_ **(1)** t-shirt was dropping off some lunchboxes from the nearby Café de Coral **(2)** when she was approached by a similarly-aged boy with messy dark hair. Both of them have almost identical gold eyes.

" _Let me look at your arm,_ " the boy insisted, holding onto the girl's shoulder.

" _Don't worry about me, Lewis,_ " the girl replied, shifting her shoulder so that she could put down the _siu mei_ **(3)** rice boxes in plastic bags. The pepper spray burns had all but disappeared from her right forearm. She took out her smartphone and checked for texts. Nothing, but she was sure that the word had spread to her stepsiblings.

Then another boy showed up, but with gelled dark hair instead, and he was wearing a formal short-sleeved shirt and dress pants instead of a t-shirt and jeans like the other two. " _Hallo_ , Vicky."

"Hello, Owen. _Getting ready for work so soon?_ " The boy called Owen shrugged and said, " _And_ you're _not going to work today?_ " His eyes shared the same gold colour as his fellow triplets, only with a more 'knowledgeable'-and-artistic glint instead of his sister's professional-and-serious(-but-not-all-the-time) shine and his older brother's more casual vibe.

" _Not until this is over. Our people's needs are more important than our own,_ " the girl, Vicky answered, wincing as her temples seared in pain for a moment. As a third of the unofficial capital of Hong Kong, as well as the location of government headquarters, she was the one of the whole family most connected to the government, not counting her _Ah Gor_ **(4)**. And since the government and these people were technically against each other, it was practically a miniature internal civil war going on within her.

The other boy, Lewis stifled a chuckle. "Who are you, _ehn_ _whot_ **(5)** have you done to my _Ga Jeh_ **(6)**?"

" _I'm not just business, finance, politics and luxury_ , _Dai Dai_ **(7)** ," Vicky reminded him. " _You're talking about Central. This is_ Admiralty _._ "

After that, Owen parted ways with his older triplets, while Vicky set out to talk to the protesters present and Lewis went to the nearest 7-11 to buy some drinks. On a usual day, Harcourt Road would be at rush hour, with vehicles rumbling away at who-knows-how-many kilometres an hour, since it's lunch hour. Instead, the street was cleared. There were only small groups of protestors chatting and passively protesting in peace.

After all, this is _not_ a usual day in the heart of Hong Kong.

* * *

 **#1-Bossini is a local clothing brand, which may or may not be covered in the future. This t-shirt mentioned is inspired by this one with the spaced links:** _ **www. bossini en/ short- sleeve- print- tee/ FW18-320803070. html? dwvar_ FW18- 320803070_ color=25**_

 **#2-A chain HK-style fast food restaurant. This topic will be covered in a future chapter. Also, this is here because I searched Harcourt Road on Google Maps. This may not be historically/geographically accurate.**

 **#3-Cantonese barbequed meat. This will be covered in the future too.**

 **#4-Unofficial Cantonese Romanization of** **阿哥** **, or Older Brother. Usage is casual. Also used in** _ **Children of War**_ **.**

 **#5-Kind of how you pronounce "and what" in a HK accent.**

 **#6-Unofficial Cantonese Romanization of** **家姐** **, or Older Sister. Usage is casual.**

 **#7-Cantonese Romanization of** **弟弟** **, or Younger Brother. Usage is slightly more formal than the other two above. Approximately pronounced** _ **digh digh**_ **, without considering tones. And no, it is not pronounced** _ **die-die**_ **when pronounced correctly.**

* * *

 _A/N: Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP) was launched at 1:40am on 28_ _th_ _September 2014, Hong Kong Time – three days ahead of planning due to events not expected by the OCLP 'founders' (aka the Occupy trio). OCLP kind-of unofficially ended later that day at 6pm, when police fired tear gas into the crowd, when before that it was mostly pepper spray and stuff._

 **More notable incidents that occurred during the Movement will be covered in later chapters, most likely from the Districts' PoVs. Also, this Meeting took place in a city where the time is behind Hong Kong due to the unfortunate timing of events.**

 **And here you have slightly more insight on the Victoria City triplets, who have the physical 'human' age of 15. (Note that most 15-year-olds here study and not work. The Bauhinia 22 is a special case, which will probably be covered in more detail in another chapter.) They are, if you don't know, the oldest three excluding Hong Kong/Leon himself, who was born nearly three centuries and a half before them.**

 **Thanks for reading and I'll see you in whatever chapter I post next.**

 **TTFN,**

 **-Talons**

Sources of the Chapter: _Umbrellas in Bloom: Hong Kong's occupy movement uncovered_ by Jason Y. Ng, Wikipedia, As I See It, South China Morning Post (HK online edition), The Encyclopedia of Virtual Communities in Hong Kong, Other Websites


	4. Chapter 3: Intoxication Ensues

**A/N: Sorry for leaving you to wait! I am currently dealing with a new school year – S3, one of the busiest years in secondary school here, and the year with the most subjects to deal with (thus more tests and exams) and…gasp…TSAs. Might cover that later.**

 **Here's the next chapter, and enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Intoxication Ensues**

For some random and unknown reason (not even _I_ know), the Bad Touch Trio and their…partners managed to get to some of the bars in East Tsim Sha Tsui **(1)**. And Emily – Tsim Sha Tsui herself – found out…that England got drunk. Because of course that is the case. And Spain too, for whatever reasons. So she had to deal with…two drunk ex-pirates and two other crazy men with lusty tendencies. Luckily, Canada and South Italy were present…and relatively sane…and fortunately sober.

In the end, the ones who weren't sober had to be dragged/carried to their hotel by their…partners, as well as, in one case, younger brother/adopted son/ex-ward, before the patrolling police from nearby streets dropped by…which was tough, considering the location of said hotel (it's on a very crowded street at that time of day) and the considerably well-lit environment, as opposed to most stereotypical drinking districts with the shadiness and the crime rate and stuff.

While they were doing that, due to plot purposes and the power of randomness, an also-drunk Poland was seen riding into said crowded street on a horse while singing _Barbie Girl_. _Somehow_.

Emily's eye twitched. It was her responsibility, as the only one amongst these Personifications who knew the laws, to keep these foreigners from breaking them. " _Mm goi zeh zeh_ **(2)** ," she muttered, shoving her way through the crowd.

"Feliks _-sy_ **(3)** , you _bahk chi_ **(4)** , GET _BECK HEE-AH LAH_ **(5)**!"

* * *

 **#1-There's this street with quite a number of bars. I've seen them myself, once when I was walking around there some months ago (I think).**

 **#2-Unofficial Romanization of Cantonese for 'excuse me', used when passing through a crowd.**

 **#3-That's her Cantonese accent showing. According to my research, the people of Yau Tsim Mong District (in this case, Emily and her younger twin, Nathan) are more prone to speaking in Cantonese than English, when concerning tourist hotspots.**

 **#4-Unofficial Romanization of 'idiot' in Cantonese.**

 **#5-Heavy Cantonese accented English for "back here". 'Lah' is a common verbal tic amongst HK Cantonese-accented English speakers. This may also apply to other E/SE Asians.**

* * *

 _A/N: According to my research, it is illegal to get drunk in a bar and on a horse in this city. It results in a fine._

 **Allow me to be honest with you here – the former doesn't make much sense. And here's a loose schedule for more on** _ **DiverCity**_ **: chapters will be posted every Saturday, unless: one, a Special was posted that Friday, or will be posted that Sunday; or two, academic issues (e.g. tests and exams kept me busy and the chapters delayed).**

 **Thanks for reading, and I'll see you on Saturday (HK Time)!**

 **-Talons**

Sources of the Chapter: Time Out, Personal Experience


	5. Chapter 4: Aerith and Bob

**A/N: Good morning (at my time zone), or afternoon or evening to you! This one will be slightly different because this chapter involves several AU elements:**

 **#1-Human AU, or it wouldn't work as well.**

 **#2-Primary School AU, or Elementary School if you don't get our British-influenced system, and with a twist: the human-fied Personifications are teachers, and the students are all random OCs (who may not appear again in the future).**

 **#3-Nyo!HK, because a lot of our teachers tend to be female.**

 **#4-No Subsection AU apparent in this one, due to irrelevance to the plot.**

 **These will only apply to this chapter, so don't worry. Oh, and all names are displayed in Western order, because otherwise, most of you would probably think it's the other way 'round – especially when in Asian order. (It's true, don't deny it, this happens all the time, I swear!)**

 **Without further ado, enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Aerith and Bob**

One sunny day, instead of their blunt, snarky local English teacher, a slightly older young man – who was definitely what older, more xenophobic locals would call a _gweilo_ **(1)** – _skateboarded_ (is that even allowed?) into classroom 2A of XXX Primary School after a cut-for-them-only lunch period (by half an hour), during the double English period of the students in that class. _Five minutes late_.

"Kids, your teacher, Miss Wong cannot be here today," the young man announced, with a massive grin on his face, after hopping off the skateboard.

The students beamed. " _Yehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh_!" the vast majority of them cheered in unison, stowing their textbooks in their school-bags (all of them backpacks). This is because, after all, few kids actually wanted to read and discuss the passages in said textbooks, as well as work on grammar and comprehension and stuff, in a language that they only spoke when needed to…even though it was a week before finals. As in, the exams that would determine whether they stayed in P.2 or advanced to P.3. **(2)**

"Once I finish roll call, we'll watch a movie," the substitute teacher further announced, later pulling out the standard white name list from a random drawer in the teacher's desk. Only that this one just listed their surnames and English names in class number order **(3)**.

"Annie Chan." A girl in the front row with her hair in braids raised her hand.

"Zeke Chan." A boy with blue glasses shouted " _here_!" in Cantonese. Even though it was _English_ class, and in 99.9% scenarios, Cantonese was forbidden in such situations. **(4)**

"Wanda Chan." Funny how someone let their daughter share a name with an infamous typhoon that wrecked havoc across the city back in 1962.

"Betty Cheung."

"Nicole Chung."

"Carson Fong."

"Johnny Fu."

"Apple Ho." Wait, what?

"Moses Ip.

"Isaac Ip."

"Raina Lam."

"Tina Lam." Sheesh, the sheer number of surnames with more than one associated student…they couldn't all be related to each other, could they? **(5)**

"Tommy Lee."

"Anson Lee."

"Coco Lee."

"Violet Lee."

"Lily Lin."

"Casey Liu."

"Andy Lo."

"Flying Man." Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.

"Kit Mo." That was a boy, by the way.

"Cindy Pak."

"Carson Poon." Carson again?

"Annie Poon." 2 _Annie_ s?

"Bernard So."

"Audrey Sum."

"Sammy Tam."

"Carson Tang." _Another_ Carson?

"Amber Tang."

"Jessica Tang."

"Fiona Tong."

"Vivian Tong."

"Jack Wong."

"Heidi Wong."

"Milly Wong."

"Pete Yu."

The substitute teacher gave a 'phew' and gulped down something from some random can of soft drink (how did that get there?). Some of those names were downright weird. How did the parents even think of those names? Like, who the hell names their kid _Flying_? That's even worse than naming them _Dude_!

* * *

One mass view of some random _Marvel_ movie, a massive headache and some complaints later, the substitute teacher stumbled out of the classroom as the final bell at 3pm, signaling the end of the double period and the school day.

Right outside the school gates, a young woman in a red top and skinny jeans was waiting, sipping from a plastic cup of ice-cold watermelon juice **(6)** , while leaning on said gates. For some unknown reason, she didn't show up to class and her colleague/brother by adoption had to deal with the 7-year-olds she had left waiting in the classroom for five minutes. "How was it, dealing with the P.2 kids, Al?"

'Al' only managed to grumble out, "Iris, I'm not f**king taking roll call for students here ever again."

* * *

 **#1-** _ **Gweilo**_ **is the most iconic local slang term amongst foreigners. It means 'white-skinned foreigners', usually referring to Westerners.**

 **#2-When a substitute teacher has to be called in for only that day's lessons, we get a self-study period instead of that lesson. Long-term missing subject teachers, however, mean a substitute who actually teaches in the original one's place.**

 **#3-Class number is our assigned number, based on our name list in alphabetical order (judged by full name).**

 **#4-Doesn't stop us from breaking the rules anyway. Even** _ **I**_ **do it.**

 **#5-They're not. Unless they put siblings in the same class. In this case (and most others), no.**

 **#6-A popular cold drink served at local corner juice shops along the street. There are some good ones in Mong Kok (where my current school is), as well as all over the city.**

* * *

 _A/N: Common local English names can be easily found online. However, names like Apple, Whale, Chlorophyll, Devil, Cash and Kinky, though rarer, can be found too._

 **Another honesty moment: I've heard of someone working at the 3/F CityLink branch of Euro Go Go (a European cuisine café/restaurant) who's called 'Flying Lam'. Not kidding.**

 **Oh, and several of these kids were named after my classmates, in both primary and secondary school. And name repeat is perfectly normal – I swear on my FFN account that, if I recall correctly, there were 5 boys called Isaac in my class when I was in P.2 myself (7 years ago).**

 **Thanks for reading, and I'll see you once I update/post again. Any reviews are greatly appreciated.**

 **Oh, and congrats to _The Hetalia Games - Season 2_ for reaching 100 views! Thanks!**

 **-MN**

 **P.S. I will be delaying my developing 9/11 project, because I do not believe that time is right to release it into the wild, wild internet.**

Sources of the Chapter: Websites, Personal Experience


	6. Chapter 5: Red Ones Go Faster

_**Responses/Replies to Reviews**_

 **shipwrecked souls:** They barely _do_ get work done at Meetings. _Barely_. Thanks for reviewing! I want more reviews like yours for this story.

 **Guest:** I've re-read the rules, and as far as I noticed, previews ain't rulebreaking. I've seen other writers that did previews and _their_ stories weren't taken down or anything. I know that Wikipedia isn't the most reliable source, so it's not my only source for info. Thanks for reminding me though. And in the DCAU (at least), I will try my best not to look into non-local Personifications that aren't canon, so non-HK Subsections, including your State, are not major characters in the DCAU. Thanks for dropping by. And where _did_ you read the FFN rules from, if you don't have an account? If you do, I get it; but if you don't, that's exactly what I'm wondering. (And if you _do_ have an account, I suggest telling me that so that I can get back to you by PM.)

 **SkaggsLoan, PennelLeatha, SpenceEvan, PrenticeKimbra, McmurrayMerrie, ApodacaIluminada, MayfieldLisette and WilkinsonShaniqua:** What is this about AO3? Can you please clarify exactly what you're trying to say, or are you just showing off that you can speak that many languages? Or have you just gone crazy trying out Google Translate? I'm sorry, but the only thing I _did_ get from those 8 reviews are something about AO3.

* * *

 **A/N: Wowzers, I haven't gotten a lot of views so far. Oh well. Onwards!**

 **And yay for _Epic Rap Battles of Historical Interruptions_ , because I woke up just now and saw that there's a total of 100 views!**

 **Warning: Unofficial Cantonese Romanizations, censored foul language, possible OOC-ness (first time I have written** _ **this**_ **Nation) and Austrian speed ahead. You have be warned.**

 **Disclaimer: It's in the Introductory A/N** _ **and**_ **Chapter 2. Seriously, don't expect me to post this repetitive shtuff every single time.**

* * *

One thing that Austria had noticed about the City of Hong Kong, was that his people are way. Too. Fast. The people in the urban districts practically walk at a speed that rivals that of America scarfing down burgers, or (North) Italy running during training in World War II if he was promised pasta afterwards.

Okay, not _really_ that fast, but you get the idea, especially when it's _Austria_ talking.

People chow down curry-covered balls on a skewer, bowls of some kind of thick brown soup-like substance and other foods bought from stores on the streets (including in Mong Kok), while still in their work clothes and _still speed-walking_. Few people wait for others to get off the MTR trains or lifts **(A/N: American translation – elevators)** – they charge in the moment the doors open, without bothering to let the ones inside exit first (despite the female MTR announcer's blaring of "please let the passengers exit first" or whatever), and it was frankly surprising that accidents and actual pushing and shoving rarely, if ever, occur. **(1)**

And now, he was pointlessly wandering some street in Mong Kok, or so said the locals in their atrocious accent, looking for Mong Kok East MTR station, because according to them, it was the quickest way to get to where he had to go. Oh, and half the shops are pet stores on that section of the street, selling anything from fish (he had to refrain from shuddering every time he passed a clear plastic bag/tank of those creatures) to dogs and cats. And…yes, that's definitely another branch of that horrific McDonald's place, with the infamous yellow double-arches in a red background on the hanging sign. **(2)**

Then further on the street, he saw a boy in his early teens. He was munching on some brown cubes of _something_ on the tiny bamboo toothpicks that the locals seem to love using as actual tooth-picking items or just fork/miniature skewer things like these. **(3)** Of course this was strange, because it was 2:37pm on a Friday in September – teens are still supposed to be in school at that time of day. But as he got closer, he saw the blades-only windmill-like pendant hanging from his neck, styled as though it would glow in the dark if it ever got dark. The design though, if in red, is the District Council emblem of the Yau Tsim Mong District.

It appeared that the boy had noticed him first. " _Hallo_ , _O Dei Lei_ **(4)** ," said boy greeted casually, as though he was just greeting a friend on the street. He didn't even know him! How did he know who he was – oh, yes, he's the Personification of the very land he was standing on. And what was that terrible smell? Could it be…the cube-things that he was eating? "Hello…Yau Tsim Mong?" he responded, still a bit unsure about the boy's identity.

The boy lightly facepalmed and removed two black earbuds from his ears, letting them hang over his shoulders. "It's just Mong Kok. I'm only a part of this damn district. Or you can call me Nathan," he replied in Nation-speak. The tips of his dark hair were dyed red. With his graphic sleeveless t-shirt (why did he have a burn scar on each of his upper arms?), black jeans and Nike sneakers, he almost seemed to totally fit in with the peasants' neighbourhood that he represented.

"Can you show me how to get to Mong Kok East station?"

"End of the street," Nathan pointed in the direction opposite of the McDonald's, "cross a couple of streets to the MOKO escalator near the fried chicken steak place. Y'know, the light blue-backgrounded one? Then up the escalator, turn into the up-slope passageway, up the shorter escalator there, turn right, through the glass doors, it's on the other side of the place – you'll see the sign." **(5)** Austria was confused just listening to the kid ramble on. How could he even know his way around the place? Oh, wait, of course.

And…it appeared that Nathan could read minds, since he didn't really show his confusion for the world to see. "D' y' need me to show you the way?"

' _Yes!_ ' he screamed out internally, but he only stiffly nodded as an external response.

Then Nathan grabbed his right wrist (in his own right had was a red plastic bag of something) and shot off like a…regular-paced person in the city, dragging the Nation with him. "Please, Mong Kok, slow down!"

"Y' can't f**king survive here being this much of a slowpoke! Y' know what we say – _mai jor zu dei kow jyuen lah_! **(6)** " Nathan was definitely too rude for his liking. How could he outright call him a slowpoke? **(7)**

"BUT WHY IS THIS CITY SO FAST?"

Nathan slowed down…a little, as they crossed the roads just after a red minibus zoomed past **(8)**. Don't worry, it's not jaywalking, because there aren't any traffic lights on that section of the street. Otherwise, if _that_ is considered jaywalking, I must have broken the law at least a hundred times over at this point, and so have many, _many_ others.

After crossing the street, Nathan sighed, shaking his head, as though he was reluctant to tell the tale behind the speed of the city, be it walking or working pace. Then he started to explain, "In the 1950s to 1960s, thousands, if not millions of Mainlanders crossed the border to escape from _that mother*****r_ , _Mao Zedong_." He said the last four words as though it were a curse word to a hardcore Christian who had no choice but to say that. "They thrived even though many of them came here with pretty much nothing. Being hardworking was the key to success back then. Y' gotta admit, no matter how much I _despise_ those f**king Mainlanders **(9)** , they made us into who were are today.

To turn from the poor, undeveloped place we were back then to the financial centre/world city we are today in a few decades, our people had to be diligent, pragmatic and adaptable to survive. And since we have so f**king little area but so many people, we adapted our competitive – even cutthroat – nature and want to move up the damn social ladder. For that, we need money, which we have to earn. We're always in a hurry.

If y' can't handle this," Nathan concluded, "f**king go home _lah_. Y' don't f**king belong here if y' don't get us and be like us. You'll f**king go crazy. Trust me, I've seen many f**kers that can't keep up. Oh, we're here." In front of them was MKE MTR station. " _Bye-bye_ , _O Dei Lei_." And he left, leaving a stunned Nation standing in front of the station exit.

* * *

 **#1-The curry-covered balls are curry fish balls and the soup-stuff is** _ **imitation**_ **shark fin soup. Both are popular street foods. That'll be covered in a future chapter. Oh, and what I said about the lift and MTR race** _ **is real**_ **. 100% true – confirmed by this** _ **local**_ **.**

 **#2-That's the general description (by me) of the Goldfish Market, or a section of Tung Choi Street that specializes in pets and pet products, and yes, there's a McD's there. I chose that place because it's close to my school and I wanted MK to show up.**

 **#3-The toothpick thing is true.** _ **That**_ **street food is stinky tofu. I haven't tried it yet, but it's pretty famous. That'll also be covered in the street food chapter.**

 **#4-Unofficial Cantonese Romanization of the Chinese form of 'Austria'.**

 **#5-There's a more direct route that doesn't involve crossing roads that I use more often lately, but that's the one that I first used and I had to buy time so that Nathan could explain.**

 **#6-The first word, in Cantonese, is a version of 'don't'.** _ **Lah**_ **, as I already explained, is a verbal tic of ours. The rest,** **阻住地球轉** **, literally means 'keep the Earth from spinning'. If someone says** _ **that**_ **to you, English translation:** _ **you're too damn slow**_ **. And yes, that's a legit Cantonese insult that I have a soft spot for.**

 **#7-That'll be the Asian bluntness. There'll be a chapter on that, I think.**

 **#8-That's content for another future chapter. God, I have so many chapter ideas, it might take me over a year to write all this. And plus current events…**

 **#9-This is not my personal opinion. I'm fairly neutral to Mainlanders unless they do some s**t that's against my morals, like relieving themselves in the streets. That's a stereotype from some of us locals, but like I said, not my personal opinion. No offense, but it's true that some of us locals hate Mainlanders, and in their place, I apologize.**

* * *

 _A/N: HongKongers value diligence and pragmatism, and adapt very quickly. For us, speed and competitiveness are matters of survival. In fact, a known stereotype of HongKongers is being 'cutthroat'._

 **Knowing this place, that stereotype is kind of accurate. I even think that the chorus to _Natural_ by Imagine Dragons really fits the mentality of this place (at the most extreme point).**

 **And there's Chapter 5! I'm posting Chapter 6 next Sunday because the next 4 chapters are** _ **all**_ **going to be specials, so you're in for a treat, my dear readers! One next Sunday, one the day after that (if not, 25 September 2018), one on the 28th and the final special of this season on 1 October, all four of them for special reasons, including three birthdays, an anniversary and a festival. (Spoilers, oops!)  
**

 **If you're the unlucky souls facing Hurricane Florence, I will kindly inform you that we're probably going to face our own Super Typhoon Mangkhut, which will possibly be a direct hit on the city (read: come within 100km – or 62 miles – of this place, I believe). Good luck to both of us. And remember that while you evacuate inland, we just buy instant/cup noodles, stick masking tape on our windows and doors (if they're made of glass) and hope that we don't have to go to school on Monday. Honest. (I mean, we're used to this. This stuff happens every summer. I'll even bet that there'll be daredevils heading to the promenades to watch the waves – there are** _ **always**_ **some in the less strong storms.)**

 **Anyways, I'll catch you guys later, and** _ **please**_ **leave reviews! See you after the storm, which I will write about,**

 **-MN/Talons**

 **P.S. I want suggestions for theme songs for the many parts of the DCAU. Please give some! I'll give a cookie per good song!  
**

Sources of the Chapter: _Hong Kong Life and Culture: A Quick and Easy Guide for Expats and Visitors_ by Emily L. Y. Chan, _No City for Slow Men: Hong Kong's quirks and quandaries laid bare_ by Jason Y. Ng, Personal Experience, Discover Hong Kong, Wikipedia, Other Websites


	7. Chapter 6: Collector of the Strange

**Responses/Replies to Reviews:**

 _shipwrecked souls_ : Thanks for coming back! I know I can get rid of spam reviews, I just don't want to, for some reason… I love my research. I'm serious about it a lot of the time (unless it's homework, then it's not-so ;-P). As for how long it takes…it depends on how focused I feel and how much I know about the subject. It can be anytime from an hour to days and _weeks_ of procrastinating and planning. I got the idea for next chapter over a month ago, and I still haven't written it all (as of my time of writing this chapter)!

* * *

 **Guys, I'm finally back for my 4-story streak for** _ **DiverCity**_ **! Expect entries tomorrow, on Friday and next Monday. This story is written for the birthday of the Personification of the Tuen Mun District, Azzie. Happy birthday, girl! Enjoy the chapter, readers! (And if you're reading _This One Meeting_ and waiting for the next update, sorry for the hiatus! I kinda have a brain freeze on that side of the DCAU right now!)  
**

* * *

Azzie staggered past her so-called living room after throwing off her trainers, flopping into an armchair in a room that she was so familiar with. Of course, one would wonder exactly how a girl with the appearance of a thirteen-year-old could rent her own flat. Well, let's say that her _de facto_ guardian pulled a few strings. _But that 'guardian' is just 16_ , the stick-in-the-mud idiots would argue, shouting for the arrest of their city's Personifications. Of course, said _apparent_ 16-year-old had privileges that those _baka_ s could never have, but still, that was why being a Personification of any aspect of HKSAR was tricky business – legal issues concerning their living arrangements and many other aspects of their personal lives.

The flat wasn't much anyway – most of the furniture was multi-purpose, pull-out and/or designed to save space, such as a pull-out dining table, a shower capsule-type room instead of a full-on bathtub, foldable chairs/stools, etc. Though despite everything, she still had a decent-sized bookcase in her small bedroom – on Britney's insistence.

After the Central Library opened, her _Sei Gah Jeh_ **(fourth oldest big sister)** got her now-signature cat-eye glasses and each and every one of her (adoptive) siblings one (more) bookcase. Hers was light pink – the kind that compliments leaf green, according to Willow **(Sai Kung)**. Why her little sister had half-decent fashion sense (or colour combination intuition) was probably like why the small extra room she was in was used for its current purpose – they were both the Districts with the headquarters of relatively well-known local companies. Willow's was _Bossini_ in her own new town – a decently popular chain clothing store that _Sei Gah Jeh_ helped out with occasionally…she worked in a branch in her territory. Seriously, that place has stores in other parts of the world.

And what did _she_ , Azalea Hoi-Gwai Wong, District of Tuen Mun, have? _A drink company that's probably barely known outside of this mother-trucking city._

 _Well, at least I have the city_ , she mused as she poked a hole in the small off-white box. For inside the small room that could have been used as a spare bedroom, was her greatest pride and joy – packs and packs of boxed drinks of the Vitasoy International Holdings Limited that would put the paper-carton drinks section of any Wellcome or ParkNShop or Fusion or whatever local supermarket to shame. _And_ they were organized by product and volume – the original soya milk drink Vitasoy, the malted version, their respective low-sugar versions, a black soybean variant; apple green tea, apple and mango tea, peach tea, lemon tea, chrysanthemum tea, milk tea and all their own variants; coffee, fruit juices and so. Many. More. Seriously, one would think that the room was a miniature Vita warehouse if they didn't know better.

Thank God she managed to convince Britney into casting a preservation spell on all the supplies. And also thank God that most of the _city_ – non-New-Territories – Personifications were a little _ci sin_ **(approximate pronunciation: chee seen; translation: literally – lines stuck together; true meaning – crazy)** …or a lot. Depends, really.

She wondered if one day, the Vitasoy company could take over the world. That would practically be a dream come true! She could already see it: crowds of people all over the circle that is the Earth cheering as they down cartons of soya milk, tea, coffee, y'know…it'd be _fantastic_!

Then her phone buzzed. _Dammit._

It was a WhatsApp message from her oldest little sister, Samantha, or Sha Tin District. _Hey Gwai! Horse riding tmr after lunch, ur place?_

Azzie sighed, smiling. She loved how little (even though she herself was barely older than this sister by Nation standards) Sah enjoyed spending time with their family and both of them loved equestrian activities. They weren't alone though – so did Adrian **(Southern District)** , Arly **(Arlene – Eastern District)** and Britney **(Causeway Bay of the Wan Chai District)**.

 _s, e & cb comin 2?_

 _x,_ came the reply minutes later, _ask dem. s got plan w ling ling. e visit her mus. cb go shopping w friend. just us_

Azzie shook her head. She would never be able to comprehend how none of the Ocean Park staff ever noticed that one of their bottlenose dolphins never performed and never quite reached sexual maturity. And why Arly even went near museums with combat-related topics – especially her own, the Museum of Costal Defense. For God's sake, she's hoplophobic! At least she had the sense to go nowhere near Exhibit 7 of the Museum of History's permanent exhibition…then again, barely anyone in the family did that anyway.

 _Well then,_ she thought, getting up from the armchair and running a hand through her wavy hair, _maybe I should pack some extra lemon tea for tomorrow. Now, what to have for dinner…_

* * *

 _A/N: The Vitasoy International Holdings Ltd. HQ is located in Tuen Mun. Us Hongkongers love our Vita drinks – well, many of us, anyway._

 _We have three major public riding schools set up by the Hong Kong Jockey Club – the largest in Tuen Mun, the others in Lei Yue Mun (Island side) and Pok Fu Lam. We also have the Happy Valley Racecourse and the Sha Tin Racecourse._

 **Little does Azzie know that the Vitasoy company actually had products sold in the Mainland, Oceania and freaking North America. So any of you from these places reading this, I suggest that you pay a visit to some local supermarkets/grocery stores and take a look around. Who knows, you might find some Vita products, if you haven't already. If you think that boxed drinks (like juice boxes with the paper carton and a straw attached to the side of the box) are for kids, just ask this city whether or not we give a damn. And just so you know, we don't. Really. Even if it hurts the environment. Vitasoy has a bottled variant that I know is on sale, but it** _ **still**_ **hasn't caught on with us yet.**

 **How do you think that the rest of the Nations will react to our boxed drinks? I ask because I might write another chapter that features that (got that idea last night – typing this on Saturday – when I was visiting a supermarket with my Mom and little sister).**

 **More on Ling Ling will be covered in the Ocean Park-centric chapter, which will place some more focus on Adrian, after the Prologue and Chapter Four of** _ **Children of War**_ **. More on HK residential units will be covered too, in another chapter.**

 **As for the issue with Exhibit 7… I know that I mentioned it in the Epilogue of** _ **Children of War**_ **. Do you want a chappie on that? If yes, I warn you,** _ **there will be feels**_ **. I repeat,** _ **there will be feels**_ **. And lots of 'em.**

 **Anyways, I'll see you in my next update, which will be…tomorrow, I think!**

 **-Talons, Your Neighbourhood Friendly HongKonger**

Sources of the Chapter: Hong Kong Jockey Club Website, _No City for Slow Men: Hong Kong's quirks and quandaries laid bare_ by Jason Y. Ng, Vitasoy International Holdings Ltd. Websites, Wikipedia, Personal Experience

 _ **Edit: PS RIP Sir Charles K. Kao, Father of Fiber Optics. (4 November 1933 - 23 September 2018) May his legacy contributions to the world be remembered.**_


	8. Chapter 7: Big, Screwed-Up Family

**Hey, I'm back already! 3…2…1…I totally forgot to tell you that this story has crossed the 100 views line and** _ **The Hetalia Games – Season Two**_ **has surpassed** _ **The No-Maj Path**_ **!** _ **Anniversary**_ **,** _ **Epic Rap Battles of Historical Interruptions**_ **and** _ **Children of War**_ **are on 122, 127 and 128 views respectively, as of my time of typing this (Saturday).**

 **And if you don't mind, click to the last chapter. I have 0 views on that as of my posting time. _How could this happen to me?_**

 **Pretty please with your favourite food _and_ drink on top? *puppy dog eyes***

 **WARNING: A lot of characters, as in, a lot. Don't worry though, most of them won't be individually mentioned. Justified because this is, after all, a family reunion. Also, Chinese. As in, a full poem. Don't worry though, I have translated it into modern English for you. Anyways, as always, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

"Next station, Tin Hau," blared the female announcer, obviously pre-recorded, in Cantonese, Putonghua and English. A young 'teen' who looked about 12 plucked a white earbud from her right ear and slipped her Samsung S5 into her green hoodie pocket. The doors of the train opened. She exited with the crowd. _Why does this family reunion have to, like, take place in Victoria Park? That's like, the place where everyone goes on_ Jung Chau Jit **(1)** _? Then again, that's probably why – Britney_ does _, like, love her festivals. And in this culture, loudness, like, symbolizes togetherness, 'cos that's like, the one, big, not-so-happy family together, making it, like, seem like it's all loud and happy_ **(2)** _. At least she is, like, freaking Causeway Bay – reservations for an extra-large patch of land…God, reservations are like, freaking nonexistent in the human world. Freaking Personification privileges…_

" _Wei_ , _Fong_ - _mui_!" a dark-haired girl shouted, wrapping her arms around her as she unconsciously exited the station. She was about two years older than her in appearance, but she was still shorter than her. She was wearing a halter top and leggings, the outfit she wore the most often whenever she wasn't at work. "Y' got the cider and the lanterns? _Yan-yan_ 's here with the _trad_ mooncakes, Nathan and Nigel have the fruit, Bro's got the cassia wine and _Ah Gwai_ has all those damn Vita drinks – y'know we gotta have some alcohol too but nooo, Ah Gor doesn't want us to wreck the law even though _Ying_ , Bro, _Wing-yee_ and most of us are okay with it anyway – omigod, I can't believe that _we're_ hosting the family gathering this year…"

Willow sighed. That was why she avoided the city as much as possible – they were either uptight, crazy competitive and supremely fast; or rude, loud and…crazy. And her fourth oldest sister was obviously the latter. She reminded her of a hyperactive three-year-old who drank too much Mountain Dew. Plus, with her choice in clothing style, she could see both of the bright red District Council symbols tattooed on her collarbone. So she took it upon herself to ignore her sister's rambling…by putting on her right earbud and playing _Safe and Sound_ by Taylor Swift at the loudest volume her phone allowed without the too-loud-you-will-go-deaf-if-you-listen-at-this-volume-for-too-long warning-thing popping up on her screen.

When they finally reached the reserved area of the Central Lawn, it was already chaotic. Sah's playing _mahjong_ with Aurora, the Macanese _freguesia_ (parish) of Santo António; little Ernesto, Cotai and Owen, her sister's local Bro, Wan Chai. Vicky, Teresa – São Lourenço – and Zhòngmíng, or Beijing **(3)** were discussing politics…this might not end well, considering that we have the centre of the the CCP and two SARs' hearts, one of them being the site of a rebellion a few years back **(4)** , _and_ because politics is a touchy subject that locals don't really like touching upon with others. Heitor (or Coloane) was simply reading _Legend of the Condor Heroes_ **(5)** , while Philip (Wong Tai Sin) was reading _Water Margin_ **(6)** , both of them somehow unaffected by the noise around them. Zhēnyǎ (Shandong) was peeking over Philip's shoulder, grinning…for some reason **(7)**.

Emily (Tsim Sha Tsui) looked like she was close to getting rid of the _mahjong_ and the alcohol poking out from Owen's backpack. Nathan (Mong Kok) and Andrew (North District) were arguing…as usual. Gwen (Tsuen Wan) was passing around snow skin mooncakes from a keep cold bag and Disneyland merch, chatting animatedly with Jìncōng (Shanghai) while sharing Disney plushies. Skye (Islands District)'s pen was moving like Rita Skeeter's Quick Quotes Quill across the pages of her lavender binder-spiral notebook. Probably some smut fics on who-knows-what ship – hey, you gotta pick up some of the lingo if there's a shipper in the family, right?

Autumn was watching some other _Epic Rap Battles of History_ episode – it looked like Darth Vader vs Hitler – while sipping on one of Azzie's milk tea boxes. Thankfully, while wearing her earphones. So Willow took a _Bauhinia Blakeana_ leaf out of her older sister's nonexistent notebook **(8)** , put on her earbuds again and clicked on _On Top of the World_ by Imagine Dragons.

As the minutes flew by, Taiwan and her Special Municipalities, Provincial Cities and Counties arrived…who avoided the Mainlanders like SARS **(9)**. Andrew went to talk to Kǎitíng/Kelly – blame Holly/Guangzhou for the English name – (Guangdong), Ah Gor's second oldest sister by blood **(10)** , while Nathan chatted with some of the Taiwanese in pretty bad Putonghua…God help those two. If only they got along. The last time they did _majorly_ was back in…WWII. Willow scooted to the edge of the bamboo-kind/ _tatami_ -like beach mats laid out on the grass – she wasn't a big fan of enclosed spaces **(11)** , even those 'enclosed' by people.

The sun was setting when Japan and his Prefectures showed up (well, _that_ 's ironic). At that, Britney tackled Raiden (Osaka) in a glomp while Gwen marched to the other side of the gathering from them immediately to talk to Nà, or Nanjing, Qí's (Jiangsu)'s blood sister. _Nei, like, holds her grudges like, all the time. I hope that one day she, like, learns to forgive…that BS ended like, over 70 years ago…_

 _You're the one to talk_ , a voice murmured in the back of her brain, a voice she had dubbed Whitney **(12)**. _You still turn left to the tram instead of right to the bomb shelter. One would think you haven't forgiven those_ Yat Boon Tsai **(13)** _yet._ Willow winced at the insult. Seriously, only some the older generation call them that! Damn the fact that she's so nice – Whitney's not because of this.

Humans were starting to gather on the normal part of the lawn. Brightly coloured lanterns and red wax candles on mooncake tin lids lit the night with the streetlamps metres away. Eventually, even both Korean brothers and their own subdivisions arrived, joining Gwen and Nà in Team Avoid- _Nihon_ -and-his-Prefectures-Like-SARS. Willow unconsciously pushed a few boxes of wife cakes (she was sure that Autumn wouldn't mind) to them. _At least most of this city is, like, nice enough not to avoid them…they're not even, like, dangerous anymore. They_ did _, like say that they would like, defend us in potential future wars, even if it's, like, to protect their trading business…_ **(14)**

Food and drinks were laid out on the mats: mooncakes (multiple traditional styles, snow skin, ice cream-filled and more); apples, pomelos, grapes, peaches, oranges and other assorted fruits and osmanthus wine; _Tsukimi dango_ , taro, edamame, chestnuts, festive noodles and sake; _songpyeon_ , _hangwa_ and _baekseju_ ; and so many others. There were even foods and drinks that weren't quite supposed to be there, like Somersby apple cider, wife cakes and three stuffed treasures. And milk tea…and Yakult…and Vitasoy. And lots of it.

" _Zhōngqiū Jié kuàilè!_ **(15)** "

" _Jūng-chāu Jit faai lok!_ **(15)** "

More festive-greetings rang out in the crowd of Personifications, which is…22 Chinese Provinces, 18 Districts, 3 Sub-Districts, 8 Parishes…and that's only the PRC _subsections_. Which is dozens in numbers. Oh boy. I pity the humans nearby - having to endure the shouts of probs over a hundred individuals...

* * *

" _Bà_ , do you remember when we started to rebel against that _wángbādàn_ **(16)** in what, 1351?" Rìjìng (Hebei) asked. Rìqiān (Henan) elbowed his female twin. "Language, _mèimei_!"

(Mainland) China smiled. " _Aiyah_ , that night was one of the most memorable in all our five thousand years _aru_. We sent messages by mooncake that time, right?"

"丙辰中秋，歡飲達旦，大醉，作此篇，兼懷子由。 **(18)** " recited Philip, eyes almost glued to the sky. The circular moon, to be exact. _It is Mid-Autumn in the Bing Chén year. I have been drinking happily until dawn. I'm drunk. So I write this poem because I miss my brother, Ziyou._

" _On the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, the rebellion begins_ indeed." **(17)**

"明月幾時有？把酒問青天。不知天上宮闕，今夕是何年。 **(18)** " Philip continued, but he was not the only one – so did some of the Provinces, the Victoria City Triplets, Emily, Marc and the PRC Nation Trio. _When will the moon be clear and bright? With a cup of wine in my hand, I ask the clear sky. I wonder if the date in the heavens is the same as in our realm?_

"Rebellion? Shame I wasn't alive back then to see it." Nathan's eyes were glinting red and _he was agreeing with Mainlanders_?! Willow immediately spat out her lotus seed paste mooncake with double egg yolks. _Like, call the cops and alert the media! May this be, like, on the headlines of tomorrow!_ Oh, wait, it's probably just Neil showing **(12)**. Oops.

"我欲乘風歸去，唯恐瓊樓玉宇，高處不勝寒。 **(18)** " Adrian, Arlene, Dexter (Kowloon City District), Andrew and Luke (Kwun Tong) joined in. So did the Macau Peninsula Five and more Provinces. _I wish to ride the wind to return to the Moon Palace, but I fear that on the crystal and jade mansions, it will be too cold to bear._

"起舞弄清影，何似在人間。 **(18)** " Britney, Nigel (Tai Po District), Lynn (Kwai Tsing District), Azzie and Samantha added, with the rest of the reciting group. _So I dance with my moonlit shadow. How can it be compared to the human world!_

"轉朱閣，低綺戶，照無眠。 **(18)** " Even the Taiwanese and the rest of the Provinces had joined in on the reciting. So did some of the other Personifications of non-Chinese origin, probably because that poem's a famous one. _The moon rounds the red mansion, stoops to the decorated window frames and shines upon the sleepless._

"不應有恨，何事長向別時圓？ **(18)** " At this, the rest of the Bauhinia 22 were in Team Recital. After all, fourteen-year-olds in the city are supposed to learn this and recite it. _Moon, you shouldn't hold a grudge against me - why are you the fullest when people are apart?_

"人有悲歡離合，月有陰晴圓缺，此事古難全。 **(18)** " the rest of Macau and the Provinces smiled as they added with the rest of Team Recital. _Well, humans experience sorrow, joy, separation and reunion; and the moon can be dim or bright, full or crescent-shaped; this has happened since the beginning of time._

"但願人長久，千里共嬋娟。 **(18)** " ended all the Personifications and even some of the surrounding humans. _May we all be blessed with longevity, t_ _hough thousands of miles apart, we are still able to enjoy the beauty of the moon together._ The reserved patch and the humans nearby erupted into cheers, and several of the Chinese Personifications lit or switched on their lanterns. There were the current fancy plastic cartoon character ones, as well as the traditional ones with bamboo frames. So many varieties, just like the ones held in the hands of the young humans nearby.

* * *

Hours passed. Yào (China) and Kiku (Japan) were finally having a _friendly_ debate on whether it was immortality medicine or mochi being ground out by the Jade Rabbit on the moon. Britney was drunk-singing _We are Young_ by Fun, a thin glow stick wrapped into a circle around her wrist, which was entwined with Raiden's own glow stick bracelet. Samantha, Autumn, Willow and Skye – the four youngest of the Bauhinia 22 – had matching glow stick necklaces and bracelets and had laid down on the mats. Hyung Soo (North Korea) had fallen asleep on his younger twin's shoulder. Vicente (Macau) had wrapped an arm around his own little brother, Leon (Hong Kong), the oldest of the Bauhinia 22; with Kǎitíng, Lěigāng (Guangxi), Shūwén (Yunnan) and Lètiān (Hainan) seated around them, ensuring that no one would be able to ambush their little brothers, while wishing that their oldest sister was okay and enjoying the moon with them one time zone back **(10)**. Some of the Mainlanders and the Taiwanese were engaged in lantern riddles, as though the Chinese Civil War decades ago had not happened at all. Emily had roundhouse kicked one of the South Korean subsections for trying to hug her from behind (read: wrapping his arms around her chest), the 'hugger' nursing several nasty bruises - hey, with a chaotic family like this, how _can_ there be no conflict during a reunion?

Some of them had to get back to work the next day. Good thing for the Bauhinia 22 – since most of the celebrations take place at night, _the day after_ Mid-Autumn Festival was declared a public holiday instead, in the city. **(Whoever that thought of that is a _genius_. Thank you _so freaking much_.)**

All in all, it was a relatively happy family reunion for a family so big, complicated and screwed-up from all the historical hatred and betrayals. At least they could enjoy an evening of relative peace and joy…

* * *

 _たとえ国が違っても_

 _言葉が違っても_

 _字が違っても_

 _同じ月を… ずっと、眺めたいあるよ。_

Translation:

 _Even if our countries are different,_

 _If our words are different,_

 _If our characters are different,_

 _I always want to...gaze at the same moon as you._

-China, _Aiyaa Four Thousand Years_ , _Axis Powers: Hetalia_

* * *

 _但願人長久，_

 _千里共嬋娟。_

Translation:

 _May we all be blessed with longevity,_

 _Though thousands of miles apart, we are still able to enjoy the beauty of the moon together._

-Su Shi, _Shuǐdiào Gētóu – Bǐngchén Zhōngqiū_

* * *

 **#1-Cantonese Romanization of** **中秋節** **, literally Mid-Autumn Festival.**

 **#2-That's Chinese culture for you. Mind ya, Hong Kong is predominantly Chinese, so part of our culture originated from and is shared with the Mainland.**

 **#3- I also named the Mainland Provinces and the Prefectures and the States and the** _ **Freguesias**_ **and a couple of Counties and such, but not really any other subsections.**

 **#4-I deem São Lourenço the heart of Macau because that's where their government HQ is located. For the rebellion, refer to Chapter 2, or the next chappie (spoiler alert), or any posted entries for the** _ **Velvet Revolution**_ **arc.**

 **#5-《** **射鵰英雄傳》** **is the original title. It's a famous** _ **wuxia**_ **novel by Jin Yong. Go read it sometime, 'cos I think there's an English translation out there somewhere. I think there'll be a chapter on that, so stay tuned if you're interested.**

 **#6-Original title is 《** **水滸傳》** **, also known as** _ **Outlaws of the Marsh**_ **,** _ **Tale of the Marshes**_ **,** _ **All Men Are Brothers**_ **,** _ **Men of the Marshes**_ **and** _ **The Marshes of Mount Liang**_ **. One of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.**

 **#7-I studied part of the novel during tutoring. This is because Mount Liang, where the outlaws gathered in the novel, is a real-life location in** _ **her**_ **territory.**

 **#8-In our local culture, those leaves are sometimes used as bookmarks, symbolizing cleverness, so I'm not surprised that the Districts would do that. Then again, I'm the one writing this and am the one to shape their characters…**

 **#9-Among the Districts, only Lewis says 'avoid like the Plague' like most of the Europeans. Everyone else says 'avoid like SARS', for reasons that are pretty obvious. More on that in the future.**

 **#10-More will be covered on that in the future, I think. That has something to do with cultures and deceased Ancients.**

 **#11-Willow's claustrophobic because Sai Kung is kind of a hiking/nature hotspot and much more relaxed than most of the city, excluding her new town, Tseung Kwan O.**

 **#12-Introducing…2P!Districts!**

 **#13-An insult…it has something to do with WW2.**

 **#14-I swear I heard about this somewhere. I'm kinda touched. Thank you… :-D**

 **#15-Putonghua and Cantonese for "Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!"**

 **#16-Chinese insult meaning 'turtle egg'. Its real meaning is 'b*stard'.**

 **#17- According to legend, the message of the first major rebellion against the Yuan dynasty was spread by mooncake. I chose Hebei because that's apparently the birthplace of one of the first revolutionaries back then, Han Shantong.**

 **#18-Possible lyrics to** _ **Shuidiao Getou**_ **(it's the melody)** **, these are by Su Shi, a poet in the Song dynasty. I learnt this in Chinese class a couple of weeks ago and thought that it would be a good idea to share this to you. The provided translation is cross-referenced with SilkQin, Wikipedia and what I learnt in Chinese class at school. And no, it is not an elective. I live in a city that is technically Chinese, remember? It's mandatory...and I'm not its biggest fan, but we do get some decently interesting stuff like this from time to time. They're all saying it in their native languages, by the way. So Cantonese for the SARs and their subdivisions, Putonghua or other languages for the Mainlanders and the Taiwanese, their respective tongues for the others.  
**

* * *

 _A/N: Mid-Autumn Festival (and its associated holidays) is/are celebrated all over East and Southeast Asia. Mid-Autumn Festival is also the harvest festival, and one of those days of year when family reunions happen, so think of it as our equivalent of Thanksgiving. Mooncakes and fruits are the most common holiday foods. The Japanese festival celebrated on the same day is_ Tsukimi _, while that of the Korean Peninsula (both Northern and Southern Nations') is_ Chuseok _._

 **Here's an extra-long chapter (over 2K words!) that took forever of procrastination to write and type. I came up with the idea of an East Asian family reunion back when I was on holiday in Osaka in early August. It originally involved Vietnam, and I thought of adding the Southeast Asians, but then it's** _ **way too complicated**_ **, and it took a lot of research to get this one done. I swore to post this on Mid-Autumn Festival, so that's what I've done. And I swear I haven't got all the festive activities down – I skipped almost all the Japanese and Korean festivities. Forgive me, you guys.**

 **Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to those who celebrate it! To those who don't celebrate this Chinese festival, have an awesome day/night anyway! If you don't mind, please leave a review or several!**

 **It might be a public holiday for me tomorrow, but, well, that doesn't quite excuse me from homework, which I have a lot of right now. See y'all on Friday! Bye-bye!**

 **-MN**

Sources of the Chapter: Discover Hong Kong, Chinese History/General Studies/Chinese textbooks, Hetalia Wiki, Wikipedia, Personal Experience


	9. Chapter 8: VR - Luxury Prison Suite

_**Responses and Replies to Reviews**_

 _Emerald Star_ : I appreciate your Brutal Honesty – I happen to share your bluntness, to an extent. I apologize that you didn't enjoy this fic, even if it makes me feel a bit bad. The thing is: _DiverCity_ is meant to be like a collection of drabbles of whatever I think up, a bit like canon _Hetalia_ itself – it jumps around all the time. Another thing is that no foreigners are involved in the last chapter. This means that it is up to me, and not the characters, to explain all this. And Willow and most of the Bauhinia 22 do _not_ , as a matter of fact, have an inbuilt translator to the English language installed in their brains. Thanks for reviewing anyway.

* * *

 **Heya guys, I'm back. And I'm typing and posting this even though I stayed up 'til like 3am last night to finish my overwhelming homework and only got less than 4 hours of sleep overall, and am running on caffeine and sheer willpower. Yeah, I know I've been gone for a while, these stories are deteriorating in popularity and I'm thinking of placing** _ **DiverCity**_ **on hiatus because I have so many ideas, yet so little motivation, too much procrastination and am focusing on character design instead.**

 **There's a poll on my profile. Choose the fate of this thing – whether I should keep going with the schedule, outright quit this thing or go on hiatus. Go vote.** _ **DiverCity**_ **'s fate depends on your choice.**

 **Anyways, yay to** _ **Epic Rap Battles of Historical Interruptions**_ **for reaching 150 views (surpassing this one!),** _ **The No-Maj Path**_ **achieving 110 clicks and** _ **This One Meeting**_ **smacking 400 views yesterday, making the last one my most popular story to date!**

 **And just to alert you, WARNING: Lots of internal ranting/monologuing and a** _ **Bible**_ **verse (read: a possible translation of one of the** _ **Ten Commandments**_ **). Plus, the first part of this is told in the PoV of some unknown Nation that not even I can determine the identity of. The second part, thankfully, is told from Vicky (Central)'s PoV. Thus, Subsection AU ahead.**

 **And so, we begin!**

* * *

For unknown reasons, the 2014 Winter World Meeting was delayed to January 2015, and when the Meeting _finally_ took place, Hong Kong SAR was not in his seat. In his place was a girl in a crimson skirt suit, appearing slightly younger than the SAR himself, with what looks like a faint pepper spray burn scar – _how is this possible? Pepper spray burns can be healed in an hour if treated right_ – on her right forearm. In fact, the only things the two (HK and this mystery girl) seemed to share were slightly thicker eyebrows, an oriental complexion and blank expression.

Her unusual gold eyes seemed to follow him as he sat down next to some random Nation. As he sat down, she gave him a slight, barely noticeable nod. How strange. Where was Hong Kong anyway?

Apparently, Germany noticed her too. "Who are you, _fräulein_?"

Japan seemed to have the same idea too, only...I guess _politer_ is the word. "What are you doing here, _Nakakan-kun_?" Wait, what?

Mystery Girl stood up from Hong Kong's seat. "Greetings, Nations," she introduced herself, showing little visible emotion. "My name is Central and Admiralty of the Central and Western District, the oldest of the Districts of Hong Kong. I will be representing Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China until my brother is…" and there she paused for a moment before continuing, "…available again." Even her accent was unlike that of the Personification of the city she was representing (which ain't even part of the UN and stuff!) – while the City often allowed his people's accent to slip through, 'Central and Admiralty of the Central and Western District' had a definite British accent to her English. Why she was using English, no one knew – _hold on a moment, aren't these World Meetings supposed to be conducted in Nation-speak?_

A bespectacled oriental young man raised an eyebrow. "Well, I'm glad that my brother actually sent someone instead of _last time_ or let some of us non-locals take care of his own business…" he muttered, but the Nation could clearly hear. He tried to recall the _last time_ that Hong Kong's brother – Macau – mentioned…he searched through his memories of World Meetings, but most of the time, he barely noticed anything since it was always pandemonium, from fighting to not paying attention to doing things that should honestly belong in the M-rated section. Then he recalled…the Spring Meeting of 2003, almost 12 years before.

Shouts of random questions were thrown around the room.

"That City's _Districts_ are Personified?"

"Why the f**k are their names so f**king long? Do they have too much f**king breath to spare?"

"Why the hell do you barely look like Hong Kong anyway?" It was true – her _light_ -brown hair was gelled back. She practically appeared _foreign_ and barely Chinese at all.

Despite everything, the main question popping up all over the Meeting room was "why are _you_ here instead of him?"

It took about _twelve and half billion years_ (as a YouTuber who I know of would put it) for the whole room to cool down and let Central answer. Alright, it's more like twelve and half _minutes_ , but you get the idea… "The aftermath of the Umbrella Movement has rendered the Personification of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region unavailable for the time being. As the oldest of my siblings other than Hong Kong himself and the main – no pun intended – central business district of the SAR, my brother has sent me in his place," Central replied at last, kind of staring at China in a gaze that only showed a deadpan "really?". After she sat down again, the Meeting descended into its usual chaos. Typical.

* * *

By lunchtime, it had taken all her willpower, self-control _and_ morals ( _Thou shalt not murder_ , says the _Bible_ ) not to strangle someone with her bare hands…and not to bash the royal blue foldable umbrella (how ironic that it's _blue_ , the colour of the police and not yellow, the colour of the pro-democratic ribbons) in her handbag over the Mainland's head. Nearly all the Nations were either fighting, yelling at each other, randomly shouting (*cough* PASTA *cough* I AM AWESOME *cough*), _streaking_ (*cough* France *cough*), trying to murder each other, creating scenes that would be rated _lemon_ on the _Citrus Scale_ (and she would be scarred for life by the actions of her mentor and his not-so-unperverted – is that even a word? – partner on the other side of the Meeting room door, through the thin glass window on it)…and the Hellenic Republic (read: Greece) and his cats ( _How are those even allowed in?_ ) _somehow_ managed to sleep through it _all_.

Vicky could finally see why her _Ah Gor_ returned home _gladly_ after every _week_ -long Meeting…and to think that _she_ had to go in his place (because he was under metaphorical house arrest) until the Mainland let him out…

* * *

 _A/N: Some of the most prominent Umbrella Movement leaders/members/supporters were banned from leaving Hong Kong, and their travel documents were destroyed._

 **Indeed. That's what I'm supposed to tell you, but politics sucks and I want to write it while involving as little politics as possible into the chapter. Since in canon, a Nation's territory is called their 'house', and if HK was not allowed to leave his own borders, then he was technically under house arrest…#Logic.**

 **I do not wish to express my opinions on travel ban. Poor Vicky…she had to take the job for all the four 2015 Meetings too…**

 **The translations have been provided by Wikipedia and Google Translate. I mean, the honorifics and the factual info was Wiki's, while the Japanese Romanization was through Google. Not that I trust it, but…**

 **Japan's choice in honorific for Vicky is 'cos that country and this city has pretty good relations in present day, actually, in business _and_ culture. 70 years ago was a completely different story, I think…we were destroying stuff left behind by them back then, but that is a story for another day...literally if you wish that I touch upon it.  
**

 **More on the Spring Meeting of 2003 will be coming up, at maximum (I hope), by the end of October.**

 **I'll see you on Monday…hopefully. Please leave a review or two, and a vote too! As I mentioned – the fate of how this story keeps going depends on your choice! (If there are no choices, it's all up to** _ **me**_ **then…)**

 **-MN**

 **P.S. Did I mention that today is the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the Umbrella Movement? That's why I'm posting this today~**

Sources of the Chapter: _Umbrellas in Bloom: Hong Kong's occupy movement uncovered_ by Jason Y. Ng


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